Paper campaigns to keep murderer in jail

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The Burton Mail is fighting the early release of a murderer described by a judge as one of the most dangerous he had ever tried.

The Staffordshire evening has launched a campaign to keep murderer David Bond in prison for the minimum 40-year term recommended by trial judge Sir Richard Rougier in 1994.

Bond battered businesswoman Debbie Buxton with a hammer before stabbing her repeatedly as she walked her dogs at a riverside beauty spot near Burton in 1993. The judge described Bond as “perhaps the most dangerous man I have ever tried” and “possessed of an evil demon”.

The Mail, in an exclusive, reported the Home Office as claiming the judge later changed his mind and recommended a 25-year minimum – so Bond could be free in his early 50s.

Sir Richard has denied this, saying the only mention of a 25-year minimum was a hypothetical one if the killer had no previous convictions, but Bond had a 12-year history of jail terms for violence against women.

The Mail has begun a petition calling on the Home Office to reinstate the 40-year minimum, and collected 3,000 signatures in the first 10 days.

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lThe Mail is celebrating the success of its campaign for the resignation of former East Staffordshire Borough Council leader Dennis Heptonstall and his deputy, Penny Perry, from a new health committee. The councillors were appointed less than a year after suddenly leaving their council duties and families to go on a camper van tour of Europe. They now say they will not stand for re-election.

The readers’ poll saw more than 4,000 respond, with 98 per cent backing the Mail’s call for the pair to quit.